Founding Brothers: The Duel Theduel between Hamilton and Burroccurred July 11, 1804 and whileAaron Burr,

the victor of this duel, may have won, both duelists wereultimate losers. Ellis provides for the reader some of the duelistsbackgrounds and ancestries as well as insight into the unclearcomponents of the duel.Hamilton is described as "the bastard brat of a Scotch pedlar." by JohnAdamswith Ellis adding only that the mother was French and that theFather was Scottish. Hamilton brought Doctor David Hosack and hisaid, Nathaniel Pendleton to the duel. Hamilton outranked Burr bymilitary rank holding the title of General Hamilton of the New Army.Burr on the other hand was a Colonel. Burr was also the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, a great theologian. Burr's accompanying aid to theduel was William Van Ness. The duel occurred near the plains of Weehawkenon a narrow ledgetwenty feet above the water. Burr's party arrived just before 7 A.M.and Hamilton's soon after, the aids reviewed the rules of the"interview" as dueling was illegal. The aids, oarsmen and the doctorturned away from the duel for deniability. Hamilton choose theweapons for the duel as .54 caliber pistols that, without the hair-triggerand during the duel, needed 20 lbs. of pressure to fire.Hamilton earlier wrote that he intended to waste the first shot yet hewore his eyeglasses during the duel. Hamilton's choice of weapons(smooth barrel without hair-trigger) should have made it very difficultto hit someone so it would seem neither party wanted to kill the other. Yet, Hamilton was hit and died the next day. While two shots wereheard yet Hamilton, does not remember having fired, as denoted whenthe oarsmen tried to move his gun and Hamilton warned it was yetloaded. Burr became the most despised leader of the time and wasforced to flee the state. Ellis concludes that they dueled because theywere insured and wanted to feel like gentlemen.

Founding Brothers: The Dinner A meeting betweenAlexander Hamiltonand James Madisonbrokered was by Thomas Jeffersonshortly after his return from France. Thepurpose of this meeting was, in Jefferson's mind, to prevent theparalysis of the legislative body. Hamilton was theU.S. Secretary of the Treasuryat the time and Madison was putting down the core of hisfinancial plan for 1790. This core is referred to as assumption throughout the chapter and is the plan of the federal government assumingthe debt of each state. In short, combining 13 ledgers into one.Madison, who had collaborated in the creation of "Publius" in TheFederalist Papers, was against this proposition for the reason that itwould make many southern states "slaves" to the northern states.

All the states had debt at the time; many of the southern states hadpaid a good deal of it off already however. Were the originalassumption implemented it would increase the debt that manysouthern states had to work off. The chief example in this chapter isVirginia. In this case they currently held 3.5 million dollars in debt,after assumption they would have a debt of around 5 million.At around the same time there was a great deal of debate over wherethe nation's capital should be located (residency question). Many in thesouth, notably the Virginians, wanted the capital built on the Potomac(Patowmac) and it was predicted by Jeffersonthat this could generatean additional half million dollars a year for Virginia. Others leadingcandidates were:Annapolis,Baltimore,Carlisle, Frederick, Germantown,New York,Philadelphia Susquehannaand Trenton. The ultimate resolution to the problem was this: Madison would

notblock assumption and Hamilton would use his influence to make thePotomac the site of the new capital. Of course, there were a greatnumber of other deals including one to make Philadelphia the home of the temporary capital in exchange for making the Potomac the finalcapital.

Founding Brothers: The Silence This chapter provides a vivid insight into the thoughts of the peoplewho made up the government right after the revolutionary war andtheir thoughts immediately after the revolutionary war. It names and itgives statistics state by state (p102) and in the end how the congressaccomplished very little with this forbidden subject and legislation. The whole thing started February 11th, 1790 when Quaker delegations(New York and Philadelphia) brought before the house petitions callingfor an immediate end to the African slave trade. Delegates fromGeorgia and South Carolina were characteristically unhappy about this.However since the constitution forbade such action by the federalgovernment, theQuakerswere asking for something alreadyunavailable.Madison suggested that the petition be sent to a committee "as amatter of course." and that it would go away. It did not however as onFebruary 12th, 1790 another petition arrived from the PennsylvaniaAbolition Society asking that slavery be abolished. What was mostproblematic about this petition was that it arrived under the signatureof Benjamin Franklin. This petition also pointed out that slavery wasincompatible with the "values of '76."A representative's side depended on if they based their opinions from1776 or 1787. Oddly enough, northern states tended to follow '76 whilethe states of the Deep South followed 1787's example. Virginia wassomething of a split state however when it came down to it, they were

against emancipation.Emancipation, both gradual and immediate, hadtwo major problems "How would the owners be compensated? orrather where would the estimated 140 million dollars come from, and"Where would the slaves go?" as mentioned in Jefferson's Notes of theState of Virginia. It was agreed that the people would never accept atax sufficient to cover the 140 million dollars need to buy the freedomof all slaves and even if they were freed it was agreed thatincorporation was unlikely, even unthinkable. The only other place togo would be either a colony (like Sierra Leone which failed horribly) ora "homeland" in the western territories.In the end debate over slavery was put to an end until the civil war.Everyone was happy about this, except theQuakers, as it may havesaved the union for another 71 years. (P108-112 Franklin Bio)

Founding Brothers: The Farewell George Washingtondied December 14th, 1799. This chapter describeshis Farewell address which was published in the form of an articlemade to "the people of the United States." this article has becomeknown as "Washington's Farewell Address" despite it being titled assuch in only one paper, the Courier of New Hampshire . This address was written originally to bring Washington's first term to aclose and was drafted by Madison however his advisers were able toconvince him to stay a second term. As his second term came to acloseGeorge WashingtonhadAlexander Hamiltonaid in his farewell address, this address was based upon the original drafted by Madisonpartly to show that he never wanted to run a second term in the firstplace and to help defend against critics who felt Washington wasabusing his power. The address was ultimately based wholly upon Washington's

ideas,involved some of Madison's words and quite a few of Hamilton's words. The main issues in the address were those of the benefits of thefederal government, warnings against the party system, morality,religion, stable public credit, warnings against permanent foreignalliances, and that of an over-powerful military. One last thingWashington wished to stress but ultimately hardly mentioned was thatof a national university.Washington officially left office March 1797 and returned to MountVernon. Jefferson's betrayal (slander) of Washington and Jay's treaty isalso covered in this chapter. Jay's treaty eliminated British control of western posts, established America's claim for damages from Britishship seizures, and provided America a right to trade in the West Indiesin exchange for having any "outstanding" pre-revolutionary repaid andfor something of a pro-English trade situation, as opposed to a pro-French. Jefferson's claims of Washington's senility ended relationsbetween the two when a newspaper printed one of Jefferson's letters.

Founding Brothers: The Collaborators Due to Washington's retirement it was necessary to find a replacementand this new nation had yet to have experienced such a thing before.At the time only four men would really even be considered to becomecommander-andchief:George Washington(retired),Benjamin Franklin (dead), John Adamsand Thomas Jefferson. Seeing as how Washington was retired and Franklin was dead that left only Adams and Jeffersontorun for office.Adams was born in 1735 south of Boston and was later educated atHarvard. He then became a schoolteacher then an apprentice lawyer.In 1764 he married Abigail Smith and in 1765 he began opposition of British policy. He later wrote Thoughts on Government. In 1777 Adamsand Franklin went to Paris to negotiate an alliance with France. Uponhis return he drafted the Massachusetts Constitution with minor aid.Adams went back to Europe a few more times before he finallyreturned to become the first vice president of the United States.Subsequently Adams cast more tie breaking votes than any other vicepresident since during his eight years in office. It was also because of Adams that it was decided that the vice president was not allowed tospeak in the Senate. Jefferson, the other candidate, was eight years younger than Adamshaving been born in 1743 nearAlbemarle County, Virginia. He studiedat theCollege of William and Mary. In 1772 he married Martha Skeltonand took her to live in Monticello, his mountaintop home. Jeffersonlenthis writing to the patriot cause more than his voice and became knowas the "silent member" of Congress. At 33 he drafted the Declarationof Independence. Jeffersonwas Secretary of State in Washington'sCabinet until he resigned in 1793. In the end Jeffersonreluctantlyentered the race against Adams.Once the votes were cast the votes were split, Adams commandedNew England while Jeffersonhad control of South. Ultimately Adamswon the election coming in three votes above Jefferson. Jefferson became the vice president although having been an opponent of Adams. Subsequently after having failed to revive their "greatcollaboration" Adams ended up almost ignoring his cabinet and Jefferson.

Founding Brothers: The Friendship The Friendship begins with a short, hostile, correspondence betweenAbigail Adamsand President Jefferson. Which brings up the point that

Jeffersonwas the first president to actually run his own campaign aswell as that of sponsoring the smear campaign arranged throughCalendar. The Friendship then continues onto Jefferson's presidentialcareer.During Jefferson's

incredibly successful first term he eliminated theunpopular tax on whiskey, cut the budget, slashed militaryexpenditures and reduced the national debt by a third. Jeffersonalsoacquired the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803, effectivelydoubling the country's size. It is important to note that the Constitutiondidn't really give Jeffersonto do this in the first place. Jefferson's second term however is regarded as a failure especially because of theEmbargo Actin 1807, which damaged the economy.Meanwhile Adams was attempting to be remembered in history. Hefirst attempted to write and autobiography, which ended without anend as a rant against Adams' political enemies. He then attackedMercy Warren because of her three volumes History of the AmericanRevolution (1805) didn't make Adams a major player in the revolution.He then sent memoirs to the Boston Patriot in order to "set the recordstraight"; Adams also began drafting essays for the Patriot in which hecompared himself to a wild animal and enduringly showed himself half-crazy if not insane. Adams eventually began a correspondence withBenjamin Rush regarding each others dreams and this seems to havehealed Adams psyche. An example of such a dream is given on page215 in which Adams lectures a "royal menagerie" on the principles of liberty and equality among living creatures.Benjamin Rush eventually began attempting to resurrect the friendshipbetween Adams and Jefferson. It eventually succeeded leading to a 14-year correspondence via letter. There was mention of a classlesssystem and how it would never work because of human nature. Thomas Jeffersondied July 4th, 1826. John Adamsdied the same day